4:58 (Asad) BEHOLD, God bids you to deliver
all that you have been entrusted with unto those who are entitled thereto, and
whenever you judge between people, to judge with justice. Verily, most excellent is
what God exhorts you to do: verily, God is all-hearing, all-seeing!
5:8 (Asad) O YOU who have attained to faith!
Be ever steadfast in your devotion to God, bearing witness to the truth in all
equity; and never let hatred of any-one lead
you into the sin of deviating from justice. Be just: this is closest to being
God-conscious. And remain conscious of God: verily, God is aware of all that
you do
16:90 (Asad) BEHOLD, God enjoins justice, and
the doing of good, and generosity towards [one's] fellow-men; and He forbids all that is
shameful and all that runs counter to reason,
as well as envy; [and] He exhorts you [repeatedly] so that you might bear [all
this] in mind.
34:26 (Asad) Say: “Our Sustainer will bring us
all together [on Judgment Day], and then He will lay open the truth between us,
in justice - for He alone is the
One who opens all truth, the All-Knowing!”
38:26 (Asad) [And We said:] “O David! Behold,
We have made thee a [prophet and, thus, Our] vicegerent on earth: judge, then,
between men with justice, and do not follow vain desire, lest it lead thee
astray from the path of God: verily, for those who go astray from the path of
God there is suffering severe in store for having forgotten the Day of
Reckoning!”
49:9 (Asad) Hence, if two groups of believers
fall to fighting, make
peace between them; but then, if one of the two [groups] goes on acting
wrongfully towards the other, fight against the one that acts wrongfully until
it reverts to God’s commandment;
and if they revert, make peace between them with justice, and deal equitably
[with them]: for verily, God loves those who act equitably!
Death Penalty is indeed a primitive form of justice where the state deliberately and intentionally kills the bad guy as horribly as the criminal had committed those crimes on innocent civilians. The death penalty is still prevalent in most of the United States, South Asia, Middle East and many a Muslim majority nations.
Death
penalty needs to go, but we cannot let go of justice.
Islam to most Muslims is
justice and accountability of one’s actions. God declares in Quran that the
best ones among you are those who take the time to know each other. When you do
that, conflicts fade and solutions emerge to live in harmony with fellow
humans. A Muslim is someone who seeks to mitigate conflicts and nurtures
goodwill.
I will not consider
myself a Muslim if I did not stand up for the rights of another human being,
Muslim or not, period.
